Slavoj Zizek fans and haters can finally agree on something: he probably doesn’t like any of you.

Zizek has always been vocal about his general disdain for students and humanity writ large. He once admitted in 2008 that seeing stupid people happy makes him depressed, before describing teaching as the worst job he has ever had. “I hate students,” he said, “they are (as all people) mostly stupid and boring."

“I did teach a class here [at the University of Cincinnati] and all of the grading was pure bluff,” he continues. “I even told students at the New School for example … if you don’t give me any of your shitty papers, you get an A. If you give me a paper I may read it and not like it and you can get a lower grade.” He received no papers that semester.

But it’s office hours that are the main reason he does not want to teach.

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He sounds like a not very bright man. One would have to be boring and unimaginative to find humanity boring.

Posted by: tim maguire | Jun 3, 2014 4:14:06 AM

Obviously a celeb trophy professor, one wonders why the university troubles him with any classwork requirements at all.

Posted by: The Sanity Inspector | Jun 3, 2014 4:38:46 AM

One less vacancy at the Alpha Hotel, IYKWIM. I once had a professor who loathed office hours. It's useful to be reminded of how lucky I am to have escaped academia when I did...

Posted by: werewife | Jun 3, 2014 4:42:45 AM

No one who has ever graded papers enjoys the task. Most of us trudged on anyway, because it's part of the gig. Still, I have known, and known of, several professors who had a very similar attitude toward students and teaching.

They were smarter than this guy, though. They never gave tests, never read or returned papers, and simply gave most or all of their students A's. (Anyone who didn't get an A, got a B -- these professors had an incredible instinct for which students were so bad that a B would seem like a gift from God.) Their big revelation, though, was that they DIDN'T TALK ABOUT IT. With no provable paper trail, no self-indicting comments, and no students inclined to complain over a good grade, they could continue their work and play nearly uninterrupted.

When you're committing educational fraud, honesty is perhaps not the best policy.

Posted by: Demosthenes | Jun 3, 2014 5:32:02 AM

All the solemn, po-faced replies here reveal that most respondents know nothing about Zizek. I am no fan of his, either (albeit for different reasons), but if you don't get his humor, then the joke is on you.

Posted by: Rob T. | Jun 3, 2014 7:45:45 AM

Alternatively, if you don't get a professor's humor, perhaps the joke wasn't funny?

Posted by: Former Editor | Jun 3, 2014 12:45:38 PM

"This job would be great if it wasn't for the fucking customers"
- Randall Graves, Clerks (1994)